Joanna Dark
Joanna Dark is the top agent employed by the Carrington Institute, specializing in combat, espionage, and undercover operations. She is the protagonist of the Perfect Dark series, and plays a pivotal role in the events of the games and novels. She began as an enforcer agent with her father, Jack Dark, in the Dark Bail Bonds agency. She comes into employment with the Institute shortly after the events of Perfect Dark Zero. Her flawless performance in training earned her the callsign "Perfect Dark". Biography Early life Joanna Dark was born in Atlanta, Georgia on March 18, 2000. She was born with severe spinal damage, which would require specialized experimental treatment throughout most of her childhood. The experience that would haunt her subconscious for years. It wasn't until she was five years old that she could walk on her own. She never knew her mother, who died shortly after she was born. At the young age of seven Joanna's father, Jack Dark, began teaching her to fight, including how to properly operate firearms. Jack was a bounty hunter, and he took Joanna with him as he tracked criminals across the world. She briefly attended an American school in Beijing, China, but was expelled after hospitalizing another student following a bullying incident. As a result she was home schooled by her father, including some online and remote teaching, and tutoring by AI lecturers. Her innate curiosity filled in most of the gaps. As a teenager, Joanna did not directly assist Jack on his missions. She was left to regularly perform weapon maintenance, provide secondary assistance and train on the HoloMan and DeatMatch VR systems. Hunting Zeigler In 2020, Joanna and Jack ran into financial trouble. Needing the money, Jack signed Dark Bail Bonds onto a contract to apprehend Nathan Zeigler, with the reward being $475,000. They tracked and subsequently chased Zeigler across the globe. They finally tracked him to Hong Kong, where he was captured by a Triad gang. Joanna was to assist Jack on her first field op, hanging back while Jack extracts Zeigler from Killian's nightclub. She is inserted by Chandra Sekhar via speedboat on a dock. When Jack gets into trouble in the nightclub, Joanna fights Killian's thugs as she moves through the building. Joanna arrives to assist, but she throws Jack's guard off and Killian is able to escape. Zeigler refuses to go anywhere without his research documents, and Jack has been injured, so Joanna is sent to recover them. After quickly dispatching a group of bikers, She moves through the streets of Hong Kong, sneaking past and dispatching Killian's thugs as she does so. She retrieves the research documents from a safe house and meets up with Jack at the rendezvous point in a subway. Joanna can only watch as Zeigler implants her with his information and dies. Jack and Joanna then move to the rooftops, hoping to meet Chandra at the extraction point. Due to Killian's interference, Jack and Joanna are separated and Joanna covers Jack from the rooftop as they make their way to the extraction point. A dataDyne assault team impedes their progress, assisted by Killian in his anti-grav vehicle. After an intense fight Joanna is able to bring down Killian's vehicle, with the following explosion killing him. Joanna escapes with Chandra, but Jack is captured by dataDyne. Rescuing her father The tracker in Jack's nullsuit pinpoints him to Zhang Li's mansion in China. There, she able to perform the then unheard-of feat of infiltrating the mansion. She stumbles in on a DeathMatch session in progress, but is taken by surprise when one of the contenders die as a result of losing. Zhang Li notices Joanna, and mistakes her for a professional player. Mai Hem, Zhang Li's daughter, challenges her, and Joanna readily accepts, entering into a virtual reality duel with Mai Hem in a small chamber. Joanna defeats Mai Hem, but Zhang Li stops the game before his daughter can be killed. As medical support is called for Mai Hem, Joanna moves deeper into the facility. Joanna finds Jack in a cell. She notices he's been tortured, and he has a brief bout of speaking random coordinates to Joanna. Jack and Joanna then fight their way out of the complex. They steal a hovercraft, and with Joanna piloting they make their way down the river, arriving at the airbase. Before they can escape Mai Hem appears with a security team. Jack and Joanna are pinned down, and they come to the conclusion they aren't going to make it out. Joanna is taken by surprise as Jack steals her weapon and charges the security team. Joanna, takes advantage of the moment and runs to the anti-gravity vehicle. Joanna watches her father be executed by Mai Hem. Joanna maneuvers the vehicle near Mai Hem and sets her on fire in revenge before escaping. Joanna pursues Zeigler's lead and traces Dr. Eustace Caroll to the Trinity research platform. Shortly after arriving Joanna loses contact with Chandra. She is ambushed by two bounty hunters hoping to cash in on killing her. She dispatches them and proceeds into the station. Dr. Caroll then uses the neurodrive technology to extract the memory of the words Joanna's father muttered concerning Zeigler's work. Chandra arrives and kills Dr. Caroll. She reveals she was working for Zhang Li, having been made a large offer. She then prepares to kill Joanna, only for Jonathan Steinberg to foil her plans by blowing down the door. Working with Carrington Jonathan and his team take Joanna to the CPU where they download the Zeigler information. The team then fights to the surface, and they escape in a dropship. Jonathan introduces Joanna to Daniel Carrington, who informs the group that dataDyne is moving a large amount of their forces to a temple in the Amazon rainforest. Joanna agrees to come along. Not long into the mission, Joanna's dropship is shot down by dataDyne. Joanna and the dropship pilot defend the craft from a wave of dataDyne forces. The area having been secured, Joanna sets off into the jungle. She steals a jet pack to fly over to the Peruvian temple, the focus of the dig site. There, she discovers that dataDyne has excavated an ancient artifact. She plants a tracking device before stowing away aboard a dropship. Exiting the dropship, Joanna learns that Jonathan Steinberg and his team was captured while in the Amazon. She quickly rescues them before they can be interrogated. The team fights through the desert town and disables dataDyne's air defenses. Their extraction is interrupted by Mai Hem, who has survived the encounter back in China, albeit with large amounts of skin graphs. She attempts to kill Joanna, but fails and is killed when her hovercraft explodes. Knowing that Zhang Li cannot be allowed to access the Graal, Carrington sends his forces to the excavation site for an all out offensive. Joanna aids the Institute squads in crossing the bridge, taking on a large contingent of dataDyne forces. Successfully making it across in one piece she faces Zhang Li in an arena, alone. The Graal grants Zhang Li supernatural powers and he attacks Jo. A heated fight ensues, and it ends with Joanna stopping Zhang Li, who is killed. In the aftermath, an injured Joanna is helped walk away by Jonathan, and Carrington commends her performance. Description and Personality Joanna has red shoulder-length hair, with distinctive blonde streak that was the result of a genetic quirk. She has bright, deep blue eyes. She has a pale complexion and a slender, athletic build. She has a purple star tatoo on the left side of her neck, which she got while she was in Hong Kong when she turned sixteen. Joanna is naturally curious. She does not trust people easily, especially those whom are associated with the hyper-corporations. She craves praise, as noted by Jonathan Steinberg. She is remarkably well adjusted and content to live each day as it comes. Earlier in life, Joanna was capable of deep, destructive anger, and often lacked the discipline to keep her temper in check. This led her to undertake reckless, ill-advised actions. She is an avid supporter and non-professional player of DeathMatch VR. She notes that if things had gone differently, she'd have tried out for the Seattle Slayers, a professional team. She also enjoys a variety of adventure sports such as rock-climbing, free running, dirt-biking and grav boarding. Skills and Abilities Joanna is a naturally skilled marksman, a lethal hand to hand combat fighter, and an expert pilot and driver. She has incredible reflexes and an ability to sniff out trouble. Her technical skills stretch as far as wiring up a charge, picking a lock or hacking a basic system. She also has an innate ability at 'being who people want her to be', which has allowed her to become an expert at keeping a false identity, suiting her for undercover operations. Joanna is incredibly enduring, in one case gotten shot she continued even though the wound got worse. Trivia * In the 'Duel' mission in Perfect Dark on the Special Agent difficulty, it tells you to assassinate Jonathan Dark, revealing he is Joanna's brother. Also, co-op character, Velvet Dark is Joanna's sister. In Perfect Dark Zero, Jonathan Dark is renamed Jonathan Steinberg, retconned to have no previous relationship to Joanna Dark. * Joanna was always intended to have red hair, but it was above the N64's abilities. * Ranked #9 in Gametrailers 10 Babes In Gaming History" Appearances * Perfect Dark (first appearance) * Perfect Dark Zero * Perfect Dark: Initial Vector * Perfect Dark: Second Front Related Links External Links Xbox's Bio on Joanna Dark Category:Characters